Suboptimal IV: Indonesian Insanity

[suboptimal]

Turn 9

I got a second turn today….let’s see what’s up. Over the interturn we’ve met the city-state and get the first meet bonus:




They would like us to train an archer. Now, under the vanilla rules they’d provide their suzerain with a trade route for each Encampment they have. However, under R&F the bonus is different – 20% discount when purchasing land combat units in a city per Encampment building. Now, that’s a lot of investment but it’s interesting. Enough to prevent the city from getting eaten? Maybe, maybe not. For right now, though, the +2 to units is a boon and things will get sped up in the capital. If I had found them last turn I might have very well bought that sugar tile. Time to redo the micro.

With the warrior I decide to cross the river plains to the SW. I want to get a view of the mountains along the river to the SW to see if there’s a pass there.

The tile picker is indicating that it will be taking the pearls next turn. If we get lucky it’ll get wishy-washy and take the sugar.

Internationally, only Alhazard has gained a population. Archduke’s science has gone up 2 so I assume he’s met a scientific city-state.

[suboptimal]

OK...first pass on the micro. The good news: settler out EoT20, builder out EoT26. Bad news - unless we get the sugar we'll drop back down to population 2 for two turns, unless we get the sugar.

[Cornflakes]

Good news on the city state militaristic are one of my favorite for the early unit production boost. With your quick micro is looks like it saves you 4 turns on your first settler and builder that's a massive gain and will greatly speed your snowball. Archer is a decent quest. It might be a while but you should get that before the Classical era. Combine that with the Mysticism envoy and you can get the 2 era points for first Suzerain, pity that the Carthage bonus won't be worth anything though. Maybe you'll be able to make a similar play with another CS that has a better bonus.

I don't think it's a huge problem if you drop back down to size 2 for a couple turns after the settler completes. It's not like you're dropping of an excellent tile, just a 3-yield plains hill. I have never see the tile picker waffle once the counter reaches 1 turn so probably stuck with the Pearl. I'm curious to see what the tile picker will say next turn after the border pop since it didn't pick Yosemite on the first pop.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, that +2 bonus was huge.  Here's how the current version of the micro works out under Pearls-then-Sugar and Sugar-then-Pearls (one can hope ):

Pearls then Sugar
Milestones: Warrior (T12), Pop 3 (T14), Settler & Grab Sugar (T21), Builder (T26), Pop 4 (T27), 3 Improvements Complete (T31), Pop 5 (T34)
This works the 3/0 pasture from T15 through EoT20, then works the 1/2 plains hill for three turns.  After that it switches to the sugar.  By working the pasture I avoid the population drop and the builder is out 1 turn later (EoT26 instead of available for use on T26).
Capital Yields as of EoT42: 431, 284 (if all units are built), 288.2, 77.8

Sugar then Pearls
Milestones: Warrior (T12), Pop 3 (T14), Settler & Grab Sugar (T21), Pop 4 (T24) Builder (T26), 3 Improvements Complete (T31), Pop 5 (T31), Pop 6 (T41)
This works the sugar over the GFH for 2 turns and switches to the 1/2 plains at Pop 3 until Turn 18, then it's back to sugar.  Not working the GHF for 2 turns does not affect pacing.  
Capital Yields as of EoT42: 455, 292 (if all units are built), 293.8, 80.2

[suboptimal]

Turn 10

The interturn has brought news. Woden has gained a population. Archduke remains at 1 population. Archduke, Woden and Rowain have completed scouts based on the CQUI military score. Alhazard may have completed a slinger. The barbarian scout has shown up across the river from my warrior. At Sound of Silence the pearls have won the cultural expansion sweepstakes. The sugar will be ours in 12 turns though that number will go down as population goes up. The expansion has revealed two tundra tiles south of the lake. Up north, the warrior moves SW onto the rainforest hill and reveals a dead end. The bananas off on the other side of the mountains are either a dead end or right next to a dead end.

[suboptimal]

Turn 11

Tech is changed to Animal Husbandry. Mining and Astrology each have one turn left. I’ll get Animal Husbandry, Sailing and Pottery all to one turn then start getting them out. Warrior due next turn. The interturn has brought limited news. Wodens CQUI-reported milpower is 40, but unless he’s got a 3 tile he’s been working it’s probably too early to be a warrior. Archduke has caught the pack and also appears to have gotten out a scout. He’s also finished a tech thanks to his city-state but he still appears to be at population 1.

Up north I have a decision – attempt to push past Carthage or swing back to deal with the barbarian camp. It’s 6 turns to the camp and 4 turns to cross the river. I head towards the river, mainly to see if this mountain chain continues up through the fog to Carthage. If it does I’ll be turning around and going for the camp. Warrior moves east and movement is complete.

I hit next turn and I hear the city-state cash register. Dunno if that applies to me or to Woden. Guess I’ll find out next turn.

Cornflakes, right now I’m thinking the intermediate-term plan is to finish the builder, put out two slingers and then another settler. Right now the micro keeps the city as Pop 5 while getting the settler out on Turn 42 with no chops and staying at pop 5. City #2 would work on something (builder? warrior?) until there was cash on hand for a monument unless there’s a compelling reason to buy a tile (only one right now – get the holy site placed next to Yosemite after the 6-yield tile is taken on Turn 39).

[Cornflakes]

What is your timeframe to slotting Agoge? If possible it would be nice if we could hold off on military builds until then. Will you generate enough culture by T31 when the improvements are complete? Depending on the tiles around the 2nd city it might make sense to put one of the 3 improvements at the 2nd city (skip dumb cows pasture) which would delay the eureka a bit. With our apparently secluded and safe backlines start you might consider going straight into another settler after the builder until Agoge can be slotted. If barbs show up in force you can always pause the settler and crank out a warrior once you have Agoge.

[suboptimal]

There's enough culture to complete Code of Laws and Craftsmanship to 1 turn below 60% at EoT 28. In the original plan (2x slingers then builder) Agoge would slot Turn 32 with the third improvement at the capital. You're right in that it would be inefficient since it'd only be active for two turns before starting the settler. Going builder -> settler would get the settler out EoT35 and Craftsmanship can be queued to complete at the same time. We could then get three slingers and a warrior or 2x slinger + 2x warrior by EoT 43 (capital would stay at 4 pop from EoT29 through EoT42) under Agoge with no chops. That would have us founding City #3 at the coastal location on Turn 40.

We could skip dumb cows pasture so long as there was another improvable tile that was close enough to get to and improve by Turn 35 (five turns). We'd have four turns of movement and then need to improve on T35 so that Agoge could be slotted on T36. That would get out two slingers and a warrior by EoT42. The capital would grow to Pop 5 on EoT42 as well.

Foreign Trade could be stalled until EoT42. The timing works out that builder first at City #2 and holding Foreign Trade until then lets us complete the warrior EoT42, slot Maritime Industries and chop a forest for a galley (which completes EoT43) and forest chop out a second galley on T45. We'd complete Shipbuilding right around the same time and then use the third worker charge for a Kampung at the capital.

Of course, right in the middle of this we find out that we're on a continent of three and our neighbors are Archduke and Woden.

[suboptimal]

Oh, for future reference I'm linking to CMF's list of Historic Moments in his PBEM 8 thread:

http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...#pid663169

[Cornflakes]

Once you settle city #2 that barb camp will be within 5 tiles so 3 era score for clearing.

How late would Shipbuilding be delayed if you beelined Iron Working first? Would that timing work out to have Magnus in place for the galley chops if we appoint him as first governor? Is there a 10-turn countdown on the era ending? I recall seeing that in the other PBEM threads. Really we just need shipbuilding in time to plop a Kampung down just before the era ends. IW would give us security from a rush.

Beware of the barb camp erupting if you head your starting warrior that direction now. Unless you intercept the scout, if’ll erupt towards the city state when the scout returns.